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THE LORD WE LOVE 
CHARLES R. ERDMAN 


By CHARLES R. ERDMAN 





The Gospel of John, an Exposition 
The Gospel of Matthew 

The Gospel of Mark 

The General Epistles 

The Acts 

The Gospel of Luke 

The Pastoral Epistles of Paul 
Coming to the Communion 

The Return of Christ 

Within the Gateways of the Far East 
The Work of the Pastor 


THE LORD WE 
LOVE 


Devotional Studies in the 
Life of Christ 


BY / 
CHARLES R. ERDMAN 


PROFESSOR OF PRACTICAL THEOLOGY, PRINCETON 
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, PRINCETON, 
NEW JERSEY 


NEw QBY yorKk 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT, 1924, 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 


THE LORD WE LOVE 
ae 
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


FOREWORD 


There is only one who can solve for all the 
problems which perplex the soul. To increase 
confidence in his present sympathy and power, 
by centring thought upon certain significant 
scenes from the records of his earthly life, has 
been the purpose of these studies. In sub- 
stance, some have appeared previously in the 
Westminster Teacher and in the New Testa- 
ment Expositions published by the Westmin- 
ster Press. Permission for their present use is 
eratefully recognised. The completed series is 
sent forth with the hope that it may aid in 
deepening devotion to him whom not having 
seen we love. 





CHAPTER 


CONTENTS 


THE HYMNS OF THE NATIVITY 
THE VISIT OF THE MAGI 

THE BAPTISM OF JESUS . 

THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS . 
JESUS AT JACOB’S WELL : 
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 
THE TRANSFIGURATION . 
WASHING THE DISCIPLES’ FEET 
THE PRAYER OF OUR LORD 
THE FRIENDS OF JESUS . 
JUDAS AND PETER ., 

AT THE CROSS. 

THE DAY HE AROSE . 

THE ASCENSION .. 


107. 
T15 


123 
133 





I: The Hymns of the Nativity 


“My soul doth magnify the Lord, 

“And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my 
Saviour. 

“For he hath looked upon the low estate of 
his handmaid: For behold, from henceforth all 
generations shall call me blessed. 

“For he that is mighty hath done to me great 
things; And holy is his name.” 

(Luke 1: 46-49) 


“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; 
For he hath visited and wrought redemption 
for his people, 

“And hath raised up a horn of salvation for 


Us 
(Luke 1:68, 69) 


“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
among men in whom he is well pleased,’ 
(Luke 2:14) 


“Now letiest thou thy servant depart, O 
Lord, according to thy word, in peace: For 
mine eyes have seen thy salvation, 

“Which thou hast prepared before the face 
of all peoples; 

A light for revelation to the Gentiles, and 
the glory of thy people Israel.” 

(Luke 2: 29-32) 


I: ‘The Hymns of the Nativity 


It is not strange that the festival of the Na- 
tivity holds so chief a place among the holy 
days and holidays of the Christian Church, for 
it is a time of universal rejoicing and gladness 
and good will. It is natural too that the most 
sacred sentiments of this season should be em- 
bodied and expressed in carols and anthems 
and hymns, for inspired songs form an essen- 
tial and prominent feature in the story of our 
Saviour’s birth.. 

It is true that the actual event, so involved 
in mystery and in miracle, is recorded by both 
Luke and Matthew with such delicacy and re- 
serve, yet with such definiteness and detail, as 
to make it quite evident that they were not 
dealing with a myth nor composing a poetic 
idyl, but were recording sober, historic fact. 
Luke, however, has enriched his account by in- 
cluding a series of sacred songs which for cen- 


turies have been sung in the services of the 
11 


12 The. Tard We Love 


Christian Church and are dear to every Chris- 
tian heart. 

There are four of these hymns of the Na- 
tivity, and from the first words of their Latin 
form they are known as the Magnificat, the 
Benedictus, the Gloria in Excelsis and the Nunc 
Dimitiis. Only the third of these belong 
strictly to Christmas day; two were sung be- 
fore and one after the birth of Christ; only 
the Song of the Angels sounded forth on the 
holy morning when the Prince of Peace was 
born. However, all breathe the Christmas 
spirit, all bear messages of Christmas joy and 
all prolong the same notes of praise and thanks- 
giving to God. 


The first is the lovely lyric which fell from 
the lips of Mary the mother of our Lord. She 
had received from an angel messenger the as- 
tounding announcement of the manner of the © 
Saviour’s birth. Hiding the sacred secret in 
her heart she had hastened to the hill country 
of Judea, to the home of her kinswoman Elisa- 
beth. Her salutation had been answered by 
Elisabeth in words of such rhythmic cadences 
that they are regarded by many as themselves 


The Hymns of the Nativity 13 


forming a hymn. “Blessed are thou among 
women,” she was heard to say, ‘“‘and blessed is 
she that believed, for there shall be a fulfil- 
ment of the things which have been spoken to 
her from the Lord.” 

No wonder that Elisabeth emphasised the 
fact that Mary had “believed.” Faith more 
sublime had never been shown. Knowing that 
she faced possible suspicion, shame, suffering 
or death, Mary had so trusted in the power 
of God and had so submitted to his will that in 
place of fear, her heart was bursting with 
exultant joy. This she expressed in her in- 
spired canticle of praise: “Magnificat anima 
mea Dominum” (“my soul doth magnify the 
Lord’). Thus she begins the hymn in which 
she exalts the holiness and might and faithful- 
ness and grace of God. She speaks in the lan- 
guage of Scripture. The hymn is a perfect 
mosaic of Old Testament phrases. In particu- 
lar there are clear echoes of the song of Han- 
nah, the mother of Samuel, sung when her 
heart like that of Mary was rejoicing in the 
promised birth of a son. Mary believes that 
her Son is to fulfil all the promises made to 
the fathers, all the hopes of Israel, and that 


14 The Lord We Love. 


because of his birth all generations would call 
her blessed. : 

Thus hers is a hymn of hope, a hymn of 
thanksgiving, a hymn of praise, but most of 
all, a hymn of faith; and surely the first mes- 
sage of Christmas should be a call to believe, 
to obey, to submit and to trust. When real 
faith is present then in some true sense Christ 
is born anew in our hearts, he comes to us 
again. : 

“No ear may hear His coming, 
But in this world of sin, 


Where meek souls will receive Him still, 
The dear Christ enters im.” 


The Benedictus is likewise a hymn of thanks- 
giving and a hymn of faith.’ When to Zach- 
arias, the aged priest, had come the promise of 
a son, his lips were sealed by unbelief, but when 
the promise had been fulfilled, his tongue was 
loosed and he sang this hymn of gratitude to 
God. Doubt is always depressing; infidelity 
has no real hymns; but faith is jubilant and 
thanksgiving is naturally expressed in song. — 

The supreme note of this hymn, however, is 


The Hymns of the Nativity 15 


“salvation.” It centres our thought on the 
truest ground for Christmas joy. 


“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; 
For he hath visited and wrought redemption for his 


people; 
And hath raised up a horn of salvation for us 
In the house of his servant David.” 


This salvation of which Zacharias sang was 
not merely a deliverance of God’s people from 
political enemies, but was to consist 


“In the remission of their sins;” 


it was to issue in holiness and in a service free 
from fear. 

While the occasion of this hymn was the 
birth of John, the forerunner of Jesus, yet only 
one stanza refers to this event. The whole 
burden of the hymn is the advent of the Mes- 
siah and the blessings he will bring. It bears, 
therefore, a real Christmas message as it 
speaks of “the tender mercy of God,” of “the 
dayspring from on high,” and of the Sun of 
Righteousness which is to arise upon the help- 
less, terrified wanderers of the night who are 
seated “in darkness and the shadow of death,’” 


16 The Lord We Love. 


and as it praises him who has come “to guide 
our feet into the way of peace.” 

“Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! 

Hail the Sun of Righteousness! 

Light and life to all He brings, 

Risen with healing in His wings. 

Mild He lays His glory by, 

Born that man no more may die, 

Born to raise the sons of earth, 

Born to give them second birth.” 


The last word of the Benedictus is “peace,” 
and this is the keynote of the anthem which 
floated over the Judean plain on the night of 
the Nativity. As subsequently expanded by 
Christian worshippers this outburst of melody 
is known as the Gloria in Excelsis. This song 
of the angels is given with a slight variation 
in the different versions of the Bible. 

“Glory to God in the highest 


And on earth peace, 
Good will toward men” 


us the more familiar form; but the Revisers 
prefer to print the hymn in two verses 
“Glory to God in the highest, 


And on earth peace among men in whom he is well 
pleased.” 


The Hymns of the Nativity 17 


In either case we distinguish the responsive 
chords “glory” and “peace,” “in the highest” 
(heaven) and “on earth.” ‘This too is a hymn 
of praise and of gratitude to God. It also isa 
hymn of faith and a hymn of salvation. It 
sounded out as the response of a heavenly choir 
when an angel had brought the glad tidings 
“there is born to you this day in the city of 
David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.” 

It was in this gift of a Saviour that God had 
manifested in heaven his excellence and on 
earth had revealed his grace to men who were 
the recipients of his favour and good will. The 
result of this gift is declared to be “peace,” 
and it is true that only in Christ can peace be 
found, peace with God, peace for the human 
heart, peace between men, peace for the weary, 
restless nations of the world. 

It was to a band of shepherds that this 
heavenly anthem came. These men of humble 
toil were the first to receive the Christmas mes- 
sage, they were the first to know the Christ- 
mas joy. They hastened to Bethlehem; they 
found the Saviour and then, when they had 
shared with others the great glad tidings, they 
returned to their lowly tasks inspired with new 


18 The Lord We Love 


joy and hope. The light had faded from the 
skies, the heavenly harmonies were stilled, but 
the shepherds knew of a living Christ and they 
gave to the world a Christmas anthem which 
still cheers countless hearts with melodies that 
never die, but fill the darkest hours of earth 
with the brightest hopes of heaven. 


“And ye, beneath life’s crushing load, 
Whose forms are bending low, 
Who toil along the climbing way 
With painful steps and slow,— 
' Look now! for glad and golden hours 
Come swiftly on the wing: 
O rest beside the weary road, 
And hear the angels sing.” 


The last hymn also sounds the note of peace, 
but its distinctive message is that of universal 
hope. The Nunc Dimittis (Now Lettest Thou 
Depart), unlike the Magnificat and the Bene- 
dictus, promises redemption not only to Israel 
but to all the world. It is the song of the aged 
Simeon. To this devout soul it had been re- 
vealed that he should not die until he had seen 
the Messiah, the “Lord’s Christ.” Led by the 
Spirit to the Temple while the parents of Jesus 
were there presenting their Son before the 


The Hymns of the Nativity 19 


Lord, he took the little babe in his arms and 
sang the sweetest and most solemn song of 
the Nativity. 

“Now lettest thou thy servant depart... 
in peace”’; the figure of speech is full of beauty; 
it is the word of a faithful watchman who wel- 
comes with joy the hour of his dismissal, for 
he has caught the vision of the coming One; 
now he is about to be sent away in the peace 
of an accomplished task, in the peace of ful- 
filled hope; for his eyes have seen the Saviour, 
according to the promise of the Lord. The re- 
demption which the Messiah brings, as the song 
continues to declare, is for “all peoples’; it is 
a light to reveal the way of salvation to the 
Gentiles, while it is indeed the true glory of 
the favoured people, Israel. 

Thus the song of Simeon re-echoes the an- 
them which the angels sang and inspires hopes 
of a better and brighter age for all mankind. 


“For lo, the days are hastening on, 

By prophet bards foretold, 

When with the ever-circling years 
Comes round the age of gold; 

When peace shall over all the earth 

Its ancient splendors fling, 

And the whole world give back the song 
Which now the angels sing.” 





II: The Visit of the Magi 


“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of 
Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, 
Wise-men from the east came to Jerusalem, 
_ saying, Where is he that is born King of the 
Jews? for we saw his star in the east, and are 
come to worship him” (Matthew 2:1-2). 


~ 


II: The Visit of the Magi 


Fancy has been allowed to play so freely with 
the story of the ‘““Wise-men from the east,” 
that in most minds it is difficult to dissociate 
the elements of fable from those of fact. It 
is commonly imagined that these Wise Men 
were kings, that they were three in number, 
that they were named Gaspar, Melchior, and 
Balthazar, that one came from Greece, one 
from India, and the third from Egypt. All 
these statements belong to the realm of fiction, 
as do the descriptions of their journey and of 
their retinue, and the stories of their later life, 
and of their baptism by Thomas. It is even 
said that their bones were discovered in the 
fourth century by Saint Helena, were brought 
to Constantinople and deposited in the Church 
of Saint Sophia, subsequently transferred to 
Milan, and finally brought by Frederick Bar- 
barossa to Cologne, where the three skulls are 
guarded to-day in a golden shrine in the great 


cathedral. 
23 


24 The Lord We Love 


In reality nothing is known of these Wise 
Men in addition to the few brief statements 
here recorded by Matthew. Out of the mys- 
tery of their past they step upon the stage for 
only one short scene and then they disappear 
forever. However, the part they play is not 
unimportant and the lessons they bring are full 
of meaning. 


Their designation as ‘““Wise-men” is a trans- 
lation of the Greek word “Magi,” a name by 
which they are familiarly known, and from 
which have come such terms as “magic” and 
“magician.’’ They were probably members of 
an Oriental princely caste, who were familiar 
with astronomy or astrology, and who had 
been taught by Jews of the Dispersion to ex- 
pect the coming of a Saviour, a universal King. 
Some sign in the heavens convinced them that 
such a Prince had appeared and they journeyed | 
to Jerusalem, the capital city of the Jews, to 
render to the King who had been born the 
homage which was his due. The important 
point is that these men were heathen and that 
they represent the first fruits of the Gentile 


The Visit of the Magi 25 


nations. They symbolise the truth that in the 
great world to-day there are countless hungry 
hearts yearning for a divine Saviour and ready 
to follow even faint and imperfect signs which 
may lead to his feet. 

The background of the story is peculiarly 
dark. “When Herod the king heard it, he was 
troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” The 
cruel and suspicious tyrant feared that his 
power might be endangered by one who was 
reputed to be born “King of the Jews”; and the 
people themselves, who should have rejoiced in 
the announcement that their Deliverer had 
come, were distressed rather than gladdened by 
the arrival and the strange story of the Wise 
Men. Herod seems to have been the only one 
who was stirred to action or sufficiently con- 
cerned to aid the travellers in their quest. He 
summoned the Jewish leaders to learn from 
them where their promised Messiah was to be 
born. They knew exactly; they were familiar 
with the prophecy which pointed to Bethlehem, 
but they showed not the slightest interest in the 
possibility that their Messiah had appeared. It 
was Herod who closely questioned the Wise 


26 The Lord We Love 


Men and sent them to report concerning “the 
young child,” promising, hoary hypocrite that 
he was, to “come and worship him.” 

Thus it is now; many who are most familiar 
with the facts concerning Christ are least in- 
terested to accept him as their Lord, while 
others, like Herod, are hostile to him, fearing 
that to admit his claims may result in some 
personal loss. 


Here, too, is a lesson in divine guidance. 
God gave the Wise Men a sign in the East; he 
led them to Jerusalem; he spoke to them from 
the Scripture; he directed them to Bethlehem, 
and finally showed them how to return to their 
homes in safety. Where hearts are eager to 
find the King, there are always provided signs 
which lead at last into his presence chamber. 
The method of guidance may be mysterious; 
the fact is certain. In the case of the Wise — 
Men it is impossible to affirm what is meant by 
“the star, which they saw in the east.” Was 
it a planet or a conjunction of planets, or one 
of those variable stars which sometimes flash 
forth with unwonted brilliance? An actual 
star might have guided them westward and 


The Visit of the Magi 2 


southward, but how could a star move before 
them on that last brief journey and stand over 
a definite house in the little town of Bethle- 
hem? It seems probable that the guidance was 
supernatural. Something like a star in ap- 
pearance, but near the earth, may have been 
eranted to lead those travellers to their sacred 
goal. It has been conjectured that it was the 
“cloud of glory” which had led the people 
through the wilderness, the chariot of Jehovah, 
the pavilion of the King. Here speculation is 
futile, the reality is plain; where men really are 
eager to learn the truth concerning Christ, 
providences are granted which give them oc- 
casion to rejoice “with exceeding great joy.” 


The third familiar lesson concerns the serv- 
ice of Christ. It is embodied in the picture of 
the Wise Men as “They fell down and wor- 
shipped him; and opening their treasures they 
offered unto him gifts, gold and frankincense 
and myrrh.” When one sees the King in his 
beauty, when one recognises in Christ the di- 
vine Saviour, there is always awakened the 
desire to render to him priceless offerings. It 
is not necessary to regard the gifts of the Magi 


O81) SCUarHE aT Gud MEM ate 


as symbols; but they were surely princely and 
precious. They rightly indicate that the ac- 
ceptance of Christ involves the devotion to him 
of praise, and of love, and of treasure, and of 
toil, and of life. 


“As they offered gifts most rare 
At that manger rude and bare; 
So may we with holy joy, 
Pure, and free from sin’s alloy, 
All our costliest treasures bring, 
Christ, to Thee, our heavenly King.” 


III: The Baptism of Jesus 


“Then-cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jor- 
dan unto John, to be baptized of him. But 
John would have hindered him, saying, I have 
need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou 
to me? But Jesus answering said unto him, . 
Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to ful- 
fil all righteousness. Then he suffereth him. 
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up 
straightway from the water: and lo, the heav- 
ens were opened unto him, and he saw the 
Spirit of God descending as a dove, and com- 
ing upon him; and lo, a voice out of the heav- 
ens, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom 
I am well pleased” (Matthew 3: 13-17). 


III: The Baptism of Jesus 


Why did Jesus submit to be baptised at the 
hands of John’? This is a pertinent and per- 
plexing question for all who are seriously 
studying the life of our Lord, for we remem- 
ber that John came preaching “the baptism of 
repentance unto remission of sins,’’ and Jesus 
was sinless; why then was he baptised? 

John himself realised the difficulty; for the 
time, he shared our perplexity and hesitated to 
baptise One whose moral faultlessness he rec- 
ognised, saying, “I have need to be baptized of 
thee, and comest thou to me?” 

The reply of Jesus was sufficiently definite 
to overcome the reluctance of John, but so mys- 
terious in itself as to need some explanation, 
“Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to 
fulfil all righteousness.” 

Possibly the first phrase means, “‘Do not hesi- 
tate, I am assuming.a symbolic role, I am not 
confessing sin or the need of cleansing, but I 
am performing an act full of significance and 


meaning; my allowing you to administer this 
31 


a2 The Lord We Love 


rite is but for a moment; my taking a place 
among penitent sinners is only for a time, and 
in order to teach certain great truths.’ Then 
he added, “Thus it becomes us to fulfil all 
righteousness.” That is, thus we shall accom- 
plish what God wills, thus we shall do what is 
right. What, therefore, did Jesus teach, and 
why was it right for him to be baptised by 
John? 


First of all, by this act he set his seal upon 
the work of John, as of “a man, sent from 
God,” a man whose ministry was according to 
the will of God, and he attested the message 
of John, namely, that repentance and confes- 
sion of sin are absolutely necessary for one 
who wishes to enter the Kingdom of God. 

John was the great herald of the King, and — 
his proclamation is of unchanged meaning to- 
day; sorrow for sin and abandonment of sin. 
are absolutely necessary in case one is to re- 
ceive salvation and to enter the service of 
Christ. 


Further too, in his submission to baptism, 
Jesus identified himself with his nation and 


’ 


The Baptism of Jesus 33 


with all mankind. He was sinless, yet he was 
able to sympathise with sinners in their suffer- 
ings, in their sorrows, and in their struggles 
against sin. He was “touched with the feeling 
of our infirmities’; he was “in all points 
tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” It 
is because we have such a Saviour that we are 
encouraged to “draw near with boldness unto 
the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, 
and may find grace to help us in time of need.” 


Then again, as baptism was for each peni- 
tent a sign of a definite break with the past and 
of the beginning of a new life of holiness and 
obedience, so in the hour of baptism, Jesus 
ended his quiet years of preparation and en- 
tered upon his public ministry of service and 
sacrifice which was to be performed in obedi- 
ence to his Father’s will. Thus, too, his fol- 
lowers of to-day reach crises in life where new 
burdens are to be assumed, new tasks under- 
taken, new struggles begun, and they find it 
necessary to turn from the past to the mysteri- 
ous future, not knowing whither they are being 
led, but confident that they are obeying the will 
of God. 


34 The Lord We Love 


The sequel to such an experience is, for the 
follower of Christ, measurably what it was for 
Christ himself, namely, a real baptism, not with 
water, but with the Spirit of God, for as Jesus 
went up “from the water,” “the heavens were 
opened upon him, and he saw the spirit of God 
descending as a dove, and coming upon him; 
and lo, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This 
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 

This was the essential feature of the signifi- 
cant event: the vision of the descending Spirit 
was a symbolic indication of the divine power 
by which his ministry was to be accomplished; _ 
and the voice from heaven was an assurance 
that he was indeed the Messiah, the Son of the 
living God. Both were thus vitally related to 
his baptism. He then had yielded himself to 
his task, he now is prepared for his service; he 
then dedicated himself to his work; he now is 
consecrated to his career. We are not to sup- 
pose that before he had lacked the presence of 
the Spirit, or that now he assumed any new 
relationship to the Father, but at the hour of © 
baptism there came a new assurance of divine 
power and sonship. 

Thus for the followers of Christ, it is true 


The Baptism of Jesus 2) 


that while they all are granted the abiding pres- 
ence of the Spirit, nevertheless, when they yield 
themselves anew to the service of their Lord, 
they are filled anew with his Spirit, empowered 
for their tasks and strengthened by deeper as- 
surance that they are indeed the sons of God. 


“Come, gracious Spirit, heavenly Dove, 
With light and comfort from above; 
Be Thou our Guardian, Thou our Guide; 
O’er every thought and step preside.” 





IV: The Temptation of Jesus 


“Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into 
the wilderness to be tempted of the devil” 
(Matthew 4:1). 


“Having then a great high priest, who hath 
passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of 
God, let us hold fast our confession. For we 
have not a high priest that cannot be touched 
with the feeling of our imfirmities; but one 
that hath been in all points tempted like as we 
are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw 
near with boldness unto the throne of grace, 
that we may receive mercy, and may find grace 
to help us in time of need” (Hebrews 4: 14- 
16). 


IV: The Temptation of Jesus 


The most important, the most memorable, 
the most mysterious, battle in history was the 
conflict between Jesus and the Devil. It is not 
to be supposed that this was the first or last 
assault of the false against the rightful Ruler 
of this world; but the experience which closed 
the forty days spent by Jesus in the wilderness 
was a type and summary of all the attacks of 
Satan and a pledge and prophecy of his final 
defeat. 

The time is significant. “Then,” when at his 
baptism Jesus had been assured of his divine 
sonship and had become conscious of his 
supernatural powers, “Then was Jesus... 
tempted,” and to this new consciousness and 
experience each attack of the enemy was re- 
lated. The seasons of highest spiritual exalta- 
tion are often followed by those of greatest 
moral peril; after the opening skies the de- 


scending Spirit and the heavenly voice, come 
39 


40 The Lord We Love 


the whisper of the demon and the serpent’s hiss. 
So, too, every enlarged power, every advance- 
ment in life, every increased privilege, is ac- 
companied by some new danger to the soul. | 

“Jesus was led . . . into the wilderness to be 
tempted,” and the place is likewise suggestive, 
for in the hour of bitter struggle and testing 
the human heart is conscious of peculiar lone- 
liness and isolation; happy is he who is then 
conscious of the presence of a divine Deliverer 
and of angel ministers. 

Jesus was “led up of the Spirit . ... to be 
tempted,” for it was in accord with a divine 
purpose and its issue was an unbounded bene- 
fit; Jesus was thus prepared to meet trium- 
phantly every temptation of his earthly min- 
istry, and his followers are assured of his sym- 
pathy in their hours of deepest darkness and of 
his strength in places of most desperate need. 


The first temptation was in the sphere of 
bodily appetite. After forty days of fasting 
there had come the reaction of ravenous 
hunger. “The tempter came and said unto 
him, If thou art the Son of God, command that 
these stones become bread.” Why not? The 


The Temptation of Jesus 41 


desire for food was innocent, the need was im- 
perative, and he had the power to secure in- 
stant relief; but had Jesus resorted to miracle 
to gratify his human desire and to relieve his 
personal needs, he would have separated him- 
self from the experiences of men, he would 
have surrendered the very purpose of his mis- 
sion; for him there would have been no suffer- 
ing and in the end no cross, for us there now 
would be none to sympathise and none to save. 
A divine impulse had driven him into the 
wilderness as a divine purpose had brought 
him into the world, he must endure as a man, 
whatever the divine purpose may involve; there 
will be times and places for miracles, but never 
to gratify any selfish desire. Divine sonship 
secured superhuman powers, but it obligated 
perfect submission to the will of God. It is the 
custom of the Tempter to entice men to gratify 
innocent desires in wrong ways; and many 
careers are ruined by devoting to selfish in- 
dulgence the powers which have been designed 
for higher service. © 

The real character of this temptation is re- 
vealed by the quotation which Jesus makes 
from the Old Testament. By one flash the 


42 The Lord We Love 


battery of the enemy is unmasked and is 
silenced, ““Man shall not live by bread alone, 
but by every word that proceedeth out of the 
mouth of God.” Jesus recognised his need, 
but he was resolved to depend upon God for 
its supply. The Devil had been tempting him 
to doubt the goodness or the power of God. 
Jesus declared that as his Father had sustained 
Israel in the wilderness, so now he would stis- 
tain his Son; then it had been by bread from 
heaven, how it now might be he did not know: 
he left that in the hands of God; he knew that - 
he was in way of his Father’s will and he knew 
that his Father would supply his need. To say 
that the phrase, “Man shall not live by bread 
alone,” implies that man has higher powers and 
capacities which physical food cannot satisfy, 
is quite aside from the point. It was exactly 
physical food which Jesus had in mind; this 
was his need; and he resisted the temptation 
to an improper gratification of bodily appetite 
by his belief that God would supply every real 
need, and that however strong the demand of 
appetite might be, the way and the will of God 
were certain to secure satisfaction and the 
truest blessings of life. 


The Temptation of Jesus 43 


The second temptation was in the sphere of 
intellectual curiosity. The Devil had failed to 
make Jesus doubt; he takes him at his word 
and now tries to drive him to the other extreme 
of presumptuous trust. He leads him to “the 
pinnacle of the temple” and urges him to cast 
himself down. Why should he? Just to see 
what the experience would be. As he is the 
Son of God, he is tempted to test the provi- 
dential care of his Father. He is asked to put 
himself in a situation of mortal peril and to 
trust in God to deliver him by supernatural 
power. To strengthen his suggestion the Devil 
cites Scripture, as he always can for his pur- 
pose, “He shall give his angels charge con- 
cerning thee: and on their hands they shall 
bear thee up.” By this device Satan still seeks 
to destroy human souls. He urges men to 
“see for themselves,” to increase their knowl- 
edge by experiences which needlessly endanger 
their purity, their credit, their health, their 
honour, to place themselves in moral peril, to 
live beyond their means, to undertake tasks be- 
yond their strength. He does this even in the 
holiest places, even in full sight of the Temple 
where faith will be strongest, even in Chris- 


A4 The Lord We Love 


tian service; he bids them to trust in God, and 
assures them that as children of God, as men 
of strong principles, as followers of Christ, no 
harm can possibly befall them, that God. will 
work miracles and will preserve them. 

Jesus met the temptation and the text by 
another quotation which showed that Satan 
had misapplied the Scripture, “Again it is writ- 
ten, Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy 
God.’”’ To compel God to rescue us, to put him 
to the test, to see whether or not he will act, 
is not faith but presumption, not belief but dis- 
trust. In the path of actual duty the child of 
God need not fear the most threatening perils, 
but one who puts himself in unnecessary danger | 
cannot expect divine deliverance. | 


The third temptation was in the sphere of 
personal ambition. Jesus was offered “all the 
kingdoms of the world.” It was not unnatural | 
that Jesus should desire universal rule; this he 
claimed; this he expected; this he will yet at- 
tain; but not on the Devil’s terms, “If thou 
wilt fall down and worship me.” Of course 
not; what could be more abhorrent to the Son 


The Temptation of Jesus 45 


of God? He has ready his inspired reply, 
“Thou shalt worship'the Lord thy God, and him 
only shalt thou serve.”’ However, for even the 
followers of Christ, there is subtle power in 
this appeal of the Tempter. He does not ask 
them to give up their high purposes of ulti- 
mate helpfulness and service to others and to 
the world; he only asks them to compromise 
with evil as a means of attaining the goal. He 
insists that the end will justify the means. He 
intimates that in the world of commerce, or 
society, or politics, evil methods are so much 
in vogue that success can be attained only by 
complicity with evil. He tells us that this is his 
world and we can rule only in so far as we 
make terms with him. 

For Christ the issue was now clearly drawn, 
it was submission to Satan and an easy way to 
worldly popularity and temporary power, or it 
was loyalty to God with conflict and toil and 
tears and a cross, but then a universal and an 
eternal throne. That same choice is for his 
followers; for them unswerving loyalty is the 
way of the cross but that is the way of the 
crown. 


46 The Lord We Love 


“Then the devil leaveth him; and behold, 
angels came and ministered unto him.” Vic- 
tory is possible, and after the conflict comes 
elad refreshment for all who fight with the 
sword of the Spirit and trust in the Son of God. 


V: Jesus at Jacob’s Well 


“Jesus answered and said unto her, Every 
one that drinketh of this water shall thirst 
again: but whosoever drinketh of the water 
that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the 
water that I shall give him shall become in 
him a well of water springing up unto eternal 
life” (John 4:13, 14). 


V: Jesus at Jacob’s Well 


It would be difficult to find a finer piece of 
dramatic writing than is contained in the dia- 
logue between Jesus and the woman at Jacob’s 
well, and in the subsequent narrative of her 
testimony to her fellow townsmen. To regard 
it as fiction is to credit John with miraculous 
literary skill. He must have seen and heard 
what is here recorded. Therefore, as a narra- 
tive of fact, it challenges our attention to notice 
what Christ claimed for himself, how he de- 
veloped faith in those who were willing to re- 
ceive his word, and what he promised to those 
who put their trust in him. 

The narrative is full of encouragement for 
all who are sincerely seeking for light on re- 
ligious problems; for it shows how faith may 
be gradually enlarged and strengthened. This 
woman looked upon Jesus, at first, as being 
merely a weary traveller, a Jew, then as “a 


prophet,” and finally as the “Messiah” whom 
49 


50 The Lord We Love 


her townsmen call “the Saviour of the world.” 

Here, too, is great encouragement for all 
who are labouring as witnesses for Christ. 
They are assured of “fields, . . . white already 
unto harvest” if they are only ready to lift up 
their eyes, to speak to passing strangers, to tes- 
tify where opportunities are offered. 

Most of all is the story instructive to those 
who wish to learn the method of approach to 
the souls who are in need of Christ. We can- 
not, of course, follow the example of Christ 
exactly, in every case, appealing to just so 
many motives in his precise order; but we can 
find here illustrations of those attitudes of 
heart and mind to which we must appeal, if 
we are to bring men and women into vital fel- 
lowship with Christ, and into the enjoyment of 
that life which is promised to those who be- 
lieve in him. 


We notice first of all that Jesus makes a re- 
quest appealing to sympathy. “Give me to 
drink.”’ Not only would the mention of his_ 
pitiful thirst touch the heart of a woman, but 
the fact that a Jew would ask drink of a 
Samaritan would indicate that he felt sym- 


Jesus at Jacob’s Well St 


pathy for her. In asking a favour, the peti- 
tioner, for the time, places himself upon a level 
with the person he addresses. Christ was a 
Rabbi, but he was willing to speak to a woman, 
a poor woman who was performing the act of 
a servant, a woman who was a social outcast, a 
woman who belonged to a despised race. The 
very fact that he should make a request of her 
made her willing to listen further to what he 
had to say. He opened the way for a conver- 
sation by his first wise sympathetic word. He 
made her suspect that something beside his 
thirst led him to address her. 

So Christ is always seeking openings by 
which to bring messages to our careless souls. 
If our hearts are open to him, if we really are 
willing to learn, we are sure to receive from 
him revelations of light and hope. Then, too, 
if one would approach a needy soul with Chris- 
tian truth he must make an effort “to win at 
the start,” to establish some common ground, 
to make it evident that he desires to confer a 
benefit, that he feels true unselfish interest and 
concern. 

Jesus then makes a claim appealing to curi- 
osity. If this had been aroused already by 


Se The Lord We Love 


his request, it is now fanned into a flame by 
the statement which falls from his lips: “If 
thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is 
that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou 
wouldest have asked of him, and he would have 
given thee living water.’’ That is the way to 
arouse curiosity: “If you knew; but of course 
you do not!” The woman at once is asking 
herself who he can be. Does he claim to be 
greater than Jacob who gave the well? 

What are the claims of Christ? What does 
he say of himself? Does he declare that he 
is more than man, even the divine Son of God? 
If men are to be saved, they must be brought 
seriously to consider exactly these questions. 
It is indifference which is so perilous. Whena _ 
man is aroused to consider the words and the 
claims of Christ recorded in the Gospel, he is 
certain to find more light. 


Next, Jesus makes a promise appealing to 
conscious need: “‘Whosoever drinketh of the - 
water that I shall give him shall never thirst.” 
Satisfaction was exactly that for which this 
poor woman was longing. She had sought for 
it all her life, and in her search she had been 


Jesus at Jacob’s Well 53 


restrained by no laws of God or of man; but 
she was thirsting still, and the thirst would 
never be satisfied till she found in Jesus a per- 
sonal Lord and Saviour. 

Men need to know the claims of Christ; but 
they should hear his promise as well. There 
is in every heart a thirst, a sense of lack, which 
our Lord promises to satisfy. Really to know 
him, and to trust him is to have within the 
heart “a well of water springing up unto eter- 
nal life.” 

All that Jesus meant and promised, the 
woman could not have understood; but in her 
eager reply we hear voiced the inarticulate 
cry of every human heart: “Sir, give me this 
water, that I thirst not, neither come all the 
way hither to draw.” 


Jesus now gives a command appealing to the 
conscience: “Go, call thy husband, and come 
hither.’ Why this command? Because no 
matter how fully we may admit the claims of 
Christ, or how truly we may understand his 
promises, we can never find satisfaction and 
peace till we make right the thing in the life 
that is wrong. Jesus has put his finger on the 


54 Die Tard WWecLeee 


sore spot in this life. She at once shrinks. Her 
answer is half true; it is made meditatively 
rather than in anger; the stranger has given 
a command which touches the dark secret of 
her soul. Not unnaturally she is heard to 
reply, “I have no husband.” 


Jesus at once makes a disclosure appealing 
to the religious instinct. He lays bare the 
whole story of her life, and in so doing reveals 
such divine insight that she at once calls him 
“a prophet,” and asks him a question relative 
to the true place of worship. There are those 
who feel that she is shrewdly attempting to 
change the conversation which has become 
uncomfortably personal; but the connection of 
thought is evidently deeper. The revelation of . 
her hidden life and the presence of a divine 
messenger appeal to that religious instinct 
which however dormant is never dead. The 
woman thinks of religion, however, as a matter 
of form and ceremony. She has never found 
any satisfaction in its observances. So, with © 
some sincerity, she is asking the opinion of the 
prophet as to the proper place for religious 
rites. Possibly, she thinks, the mistake has 


Jesus at Jacob’s Well bit 


been here; should one worship at Mount 
Gerizim, as the Samaritans believed, or at Jeru- 
salem, as the Jews taught? 


Our Lord now makes a revelation appealing 
to hope. He tells the woman that her trouble 
has not been as to the place of worship, but as 
to the fact; she has never worshipped at all. 
“God is a Spirit” and true worship is there- 
fore not a question of place but of faith and_ 
love, not a matter of form and ceremony, but 
of spiritual reality; its essence is found in a 
true knowledge of God and in fellowship with 
him as a loving Father. Jerusalem has indeed 
been the divinely appointed place of worship, 
related to the revelation of salvation made 
through the Jews, but the time has come when 
_ there are to be no local restrictions to worship. 
True worshippers will not be concerned with 
place and symbol, but will worship “in spirit 
and truth.” That there is need of some Medi- 
ator to give this fuller knowledge of God, and 
to bring guilty souls into fellowship with him, 
is suggested by the immediate reply of the 
woman: “I know that Messiah cometh . . . he 
will declare unto us all things.” Some hope of 


56 The Lord We Love 


such a Saviour had been kept alive in her heart, 
in spite of all her ignorance and sin. 


The woman is now ready for the supreme 
word. This was a declaration appealing to 
faith: “I that speak unto thee am he.” Does 
the woman believe? Her action is more elo- 
quent than speech. Six times Jesus has ad- 
dressed her and each time she has made a 
reply. His seventh word declares him to be 
the Messiah; she makes no verbal answer, but 
we read that she “left her waterpot, and went 
away into the city, and saith to the people, 
Come, see a man, who told me all things that 
ever I did: can this be the Christ?” We do 
not know just how perfect her faith may have 
been; but, to-day, when a man or woman is” 
found so interested in Christ that the daily task 
is for a time forgotten, and the one desire is 
to tell others about Christ, we are safe to con- 
clude that faith is real and vital. As we read 
how this new disciple goes on her surprising 
and successful mission, as we see the Samari- 
tans coming forth to welcome the Messiah, the 
narrative reaches its climax of interest and in- 
Spiration. 


Jesus at Jacob’s Well DY; 


In reply to the disciples who offer him food 
to eat, Jesus declares that his deeper satisfac- 
tion lies in revealing himself to fainting souls, 
as he has just done to the woman at the well. 
Those who seek him are sure to be surprised 
by the clear revelation of himself he delights 
to give. 


As Jesus sees the Samaritans streaming 
forth to meet him, because of the witness they 
have heard, Jesus intimates that opportunities 
for fruitful testimony are always at hand for 
his followers. There is never reason for delay. 
The fields “are white already.” It is as though 
others had sown the seed of the harvests we 
may reap, and our reward consists in the sal- 
vation of immortal souls. 

As the Samaritans receive him gladly into 
their city and their hearts, demanding no 
miracle and trusting him simply because of his 
word, we catch a prophetic vision of the multi- 
tudes from all nations who will be glad to wel- 
come the Messiah and to find life in him who is 
indeed “the Saviour of the world.” 


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Sain ae 


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VI: The Sermon on the Mount 


“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is 
the kingdom of heaven. 

“Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall 
be comforted. 

“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit 
the earth. . 
“Blessed are they that hunger and thirst 

after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 
“Blessed are the merciful: for they shall ob- 
tain mercy. 
“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall 
see God. 

“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall 
be called sons of God. 
“Blessed are they that have been persecuted 
for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the king- 

dom of heaven (Matthew 5:3-10). 


VI: The Sermon onthe Mount 


The Sermon on the Mount is the most per- 
fect summary we have of the laws of Christian 
living, it is the supreme discourse in the litera- 
ture of the world. It must be read, however, 
in the light of that glory which radiates from 
the divine person of the Preacher, otherwise it 
would fill the mind with bewilderment and 
despair. By its lofty ideals and its perfect 
standards of conduct we are condemned, but 
the Law-giver to whose authority we bow is 
the Saviour to whom we look for pardon and 
for strength. 

The subject of the sermon is introduced by 
those significant and precious phrases known 
as the Beatitudes. They describe the character 
and blessedness of those who have entered the 
kingdom of grace and are heirs of the kingdom 
of glory. This character is comprehended in 
the one inclusive term of “righteousness”; and 


this term is the theme of the discourse. 
61 


62 The Lord We Love 


The righteousness which Christ requires of 
his followers is discussed first in relation to 
the moral law set forth by Moses and the 
prophets. This law Christ declares: to be 
changeless and eternal. He seeks neither to 
abrogate nor to amend, but he interprets it as 
applying to motives as well as to acts; and he 
insists that true righteousness is not a matter 
of external obedience, of form or of pretence, 
as was the reputed righteousness of the scribes 
and Pharisees, but that it is rather a matter 
of the heart, and is a submission of the soul 
which recognises in the law not an arbitrary 
code of conduct but an expression of the will 
of God. | 

Such righteousness Christ illustrates by ref-_ 
erences to the laws against murder and adultery 
and profanity and retaliation and hatred; and 
he shows how actually these laws may be 
broken by secret thought and evil desire, and 
how impossible it is to cover transgression by 
excuse. Such righteousness can be attained 
only by perfect love, and it is with this in view 
that our Lord can conclude, “Be ye therefore 
perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven 
is perfect.” 


The Sermon on the Mount 63 


While true righteousness is not formal, it is 
not inconsistent, however, with religious forms. 
Thus in the second portion of his sermon, 
Christ discusses the most familiar acts of re- 
ligious service, namely, almsgiving, prayer 
and fasting. He teaches that true righteous- 
ness in the matter of these religious observ- 
ances must be tested by motives and by the 
attitude of the heart toward God. Almsgiv- 
ing which is designed to secure the praise of 
men is not an expression of love for God but a 
mere selfish bargain with the hope of gain. 
Prayer which is offered in public in order to 
_ secure a reputation for piety is worse than a 

heathen incantation, for real prayer is an ap- 
proach to God by one who is seeking his glory 
and asking for those things which are believed 
to be according to his will. A model of such 
prayer Christ gives in the incomparable peti- 
tions which begin with the familiar phrase, 
“Our Father which art in heaven.” 

So too, fasting or any other form of self- 
denial is mere hypocrisy if its purpose is to se- 
cure the admiration of men; if, however, it is 
due to sorrow for sin or is demanded by the 
welfare of others, then one may expect a 


64 The Lord We Love 


reward from the Father ‘‘who seeth in se- 
cret.” 


The third division of the discourse deals with 
true righteousness as it stands related to the 
world’s goods, and to its moral evil. As to the 
former, one who is truly righteous will be on 
his guard against the contrasted temptations of 
avarice and of anxiety. 

On the one hand, if riches increase he will | 
not forget to lay up treasures in heaven, while 
striving for the fleeting treasures of earth. He 
will not allow the desire for gain to blind his 
moral sense. He will not permit himself to 
become possessed by his possessions. He will 
not be a slave to gold; he will remember that 
one “cannot serve God and mammon.” 

On the other hand, when poverty threatens, 
while not lacking in foresight or prudence, he 
will never allow his soul to be tortured by 
anxiety in reference to food and raiment; he 
will realise that worry can work no good; he 
‘will trust in the care of God whom he sees feed- - 
ing the birds and clothing in beauty the flow- 
ers; he will seek his kingdom and his righteous- 


The Sermon on the Mount 65 


ness and leave with him the morrow and its 
care. 

As to the evil that is in the world, the 
righteous man will fall into the habit neither 
of censoriousness nor of carelessness. He can- 
not fail to form opinions of others, nor to con- 
demn what is obviously wrong; but he is not 
unkind in his judgments nor does he rejoice in 
finding fault. He regards censoriousness as 
dangerous, as unreasonable, as hypocritical and 
as un-Christian. 

On the other hand, one cannot afford to be 
indifferent to moral evil, particularly if he is 
a teacher of religious truth. He must have a 
due regard to persons as well as to times and 
places. There is such a thing as “casting pearls 
before swine.” 


To treat men justly, to be free from anxiety 
and avarice, to perform rightly our religious 
duties, to observe perfectly the moral law, re- 
quires more than human wisdom and strength, 
and the Sermon reaches its majestic climax as 
it discloses and emphasises the unlimited re- 
sources of prayer and the attitude which one 


66 The Lord We Love 


should maintain both toward God and toward 
his fellow men. 

In relation to God the attitude should ever 
be that of a child toward a father, and one is 
encouraged to assume such an attitude by the 
gracious promise: “If ye then being evil know 
how to give good gifts unto your children, how 
much more shall your Father who is in heaven 
give good things to them that ask him?” 

In relation to our fellow men, Christ pro- 
claims that incomparable “Golden Rule” of 
conduct, the observance of which would end all 
differences and discords between individuals, 
between classes and parties and between the 
nations of the world: “All things therefore 
whatsoever ye would that men should do unto 
you, even so do ye also unto them.” 


The conclusion of the discourse consists of 
three solemn exhortations presented in the 
form of parables. The first is that of the wide _ 
and the narrow gates and the broad and the 
straitened ways, leading to destruction and to 
life. By this picture Christ is urging his hear- 
ers to make an eager effort to enter into the 
kingdom of heaven. It is not difficult for one 


The Sermon on the Mount 67 


to be lost, one needs only to drift with the 
current and to follow the crowd; but salva- 
tion is possible only where there are effort, 
sacrifice, courage and determined loyalty to 
Christ. 

The second parable is that of the good and 
the corrupt trees which bring forth good and 
evil fruit, and which picture the tests which 
must be applied to teachers of religion against 
whose proffered guidance we must be on our 
guard. We must be assured of the character 
of such teachers before dinate ourselves to 
their care. 

The last picture is that of the two houses, 
_ the one founded on a rock and the other built 
upon the sand, and in the time of storm and 
flood the one stands firm and the other falls 
in hideous ruin. Thus shall it be in the time 
of testing and of judgment; only those who 
have heeded the words of Christ and have 
yielded true obedience to him will endure the 
trial and will stand secure. 

With such serious possibilities of choice, the 
Sermon comes to its close. Surely the Teacher 
is likewise the Saviour. In him alone we must 
trust. | 


68 The Lord We Love 


“His oath, His covenant, and His blood 
Support me in the sinking flood; 
When all around my soul gives way, 
He then is all my Hope and Stay. — 
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; 
All other ground is sinking sand.” 


VII: The Transfiguration 


“And as he was praying, the fashion of his 
countenance was altered, and his raiment be- 
came white and dazzling. And behold, there 
talked with him two men, who were Moses 
and Elijah; who appeared in glory, and spake 
of his decease which he was about to accom- 
plish at Jerusalem” (Luke 9: 29-31). 


“We all, with unveiled face beholding as in 
a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed 
into the same image from glory to glory, even 
as from the Lord the Spirit” (II Corinthians 


8:18). 


VII: The Transfiguration 


The transfiguration of our Lord, while he 
prays on the slopes of Mount Hermon, is 
closely and vitally related to the teaching he 
has been giving to the disciples near the villages 
of Czsarea Philippi. He has accepted Peter’s 
great confession as to his divine person, and 
now, out of the heavenly glory, comes the voice 
of the Father saying, ‘This is my beloved Son.” 
He has taught them particularly of his ap- 
proaching death; and now, upon the mountain, 
Moses and Elijah appear, talking with him, as 
Luke affirms, “of his decease which he was 
about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” He has 
predicted his return in glory, and now, as Peter 
afterwards declared, he gives the disciples a 
foretaste of what that glory will be. 

Just what is meant by the statement, “He 
was transfigured before them,” it is difficult for 
us to understand. It is surely an experience 
quite different from that of Moses on the 


mountain. The face of Moses shone with a 
71 


72 The Lord We Love 


reflected light; but, in the case of Jesus, a glory 
from within bursts forth and irradiates his 
whole being, until not only his face, but his 
very garments are radiant with a dazzling light. 
It is as if a monarch had been walking in dis- 
guise; only occasionally beneath his humble 
garment has been revealed a glimpse of the 
purple and the gold. Here, for an hour, the 
disguise is withdrawn and the King appears in 
his real majesty and in the regal splendour of 
his divine glory. 


Jesus had been alone, with Peter, James, and 
John, when the startling change in his appear- 
ance occurred; but as the disciples gazed on 
him in wonder ‘Behold, there appeared unto 
them Moses and Elijah talking with him.” 
The two men whose departure from the world 
had been veiled in mystery were chosen for 
this mysterious return. Moses is commonly 
supposed to represent the Law and Elijah the 
Prophets; both had pointed forward by symbol 
and prediction to the atoning work of Christ; 
these men could speak with Jesus intelligently 
concerning his coming death. Then, too, these 
men had been prepared peculiarly, by personal 


The Transfiguration 73 


experiences, to understand the grace of God, 
and therefore they best of all could compre- 
hend the love of God in the gift of his Son. 


“And Peter answered,” that is, his remark 
was called forth by the startling experience, 
“Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, 
T will make here three tabernacles; one for 
thee, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 
Peter was dazed by the wonder and mystery of 
the scene. He did not know what to say. His 
words seem absurd; beings from the unseen 
world would hardly care for huts on a moun- 
tain side; it would not be a kindness long to 
detain here on earth visitors from heaven. 
However, his siiggestion is far from meaning- 
less; Peter is not to be ridiculed; he realised the 
blessedness of his experience ; however clumsily 
expressed, his desire was to prolong such an 
ecstatic vision; in spite of his fear, he wished 
to continue in such blissful companionship. 

Even while Peter was speaking, a bright 
cloud came and overshadowed them all. The 
scene was about to end; but first there came 
out of the cloud the voice of the Father convey- 
ing the supreme message of the hour, “This is 


74 The Lord We Love 


my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 
There was no need of detaining Moses and 
Elijah. He had appeared, of whom Moses in 
the Law and the Prophets had testified, even 
Jesus, the divine Son of God. The time had 
come when those who wished to know the na- 
ture and will and saving grace of God could 
find them completely and finally revealed in 
Jesus Christ his Son. 

“And when the disciples heard it, they fell 
on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus 
came and touched them and said, Arise, and be 
not afraid. And lifting up their eyes, they saw 
no one save Jesus only.” They needed none 
other; him they were to hear; yet for a time 
the heavenly light was to fade; they were to — 
follow him into the dark valley of the shadow — 
of death; but they could never forget the vision 
of his revealed glory; henceforth he was to 
them more truly than ever a divine Lord and 
the coming King. 


This unique experience was of deep signifi- 
cance to our Lord himself. It prepared him 
for the pain and death he so soon was to en- 
dure. It assured him again of his divine son- 


The Transfiguration 7) 


ship; it reminded him that if he lost his life he 
would find it, if he endured the cross he would 
surely rise from the dead and meet the saints 
of old in a state of glory, in a position of 
supreme power. : 

This event was of still greater significance to 
the disciples. They, too, needed to be prepared 
for the trials which lay before them. ‘Their 
belief in the divine nature of their Lord was 
strengthened by this vision of his glory; the 
mysterious predictions of his death and resur- 
rection were confirmed by what they had seen 
and heard; the splendour of his final coming 
was henceforth more real, and in view of its 
certainty they were more ready than before to 
take up the cross and come after him. 

No less important are the messages for his 
followers to-day. They are reminded that by 
faith in him, as they now behold his glory, they 
can be “transformed into the same image,” 
“transfigured,”’ not by an outward imitation of 
Christ but by the operation of an inner power 
“even as from the Lord the Spirit.” 

So, too, we see predicted more clearly the cir- 
cumstances of his future appearing; then some, 
who like Moses have died, and whose bodies 


76 The Lord We Love 


have disappeared in burial, will appear in bodies 
deathless and immortal; others like Elijah, who 
never died, will not taste of death, but will be 
transformed, transfigured, “in a moment, in 
the twinkling of an eye’ and “be caught up 
» 4) to “Meet. the Lordtin the air butane 
splendour of the scene will be embodied and 
centred in the majestic form and radiant face 
of the returning, triumphant King. 


VIII: Washing the Disciples’ Feet 


“Ye call me Teacher and Lord: and ye say 
well; forsol am. If I then, the Lord and the 
Teacher, have washed your feet, ye also ought 
to wash one another's feet. For I have gwen 
you an example, that ye also should do as I 
have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto 
you, A servant is not greater than his lord; 
neither one that ts sent greater than he that 
sent him. If ye know these things, blessed 
are ye if ye do them” (John 13: 13-17). 


VIII: Washing the Disciples’ 
Feet 


While on their way to the upper room where 
for the last time before his death they are to 
meet with their Lord, or even as they are select- 
ing their places at the table about which they 
are to partake of that “last supper,” a dispute 
arises among the disciples as to which of them 
should be accounted greatest. Jesus takes the 
occasion to remind them that among his fol- 
lowers true greatness is to be measured by will- 
ingness to serve; and then he gives them a 
memorable object lesson to teach them at once 
the majesty, the possible forms and the motive 
of true service. He “riseth from supper, and 
layeth aside his garments; and he took a towel, 
and girded himself. Then he poureth water 
into a basin, and began to wash his disciples’ 
feet, and to wipe them with the towel where- 
with he was girded.” 

When he has finished his lowly task, is it pos- 
sible for the dispute to continue? Is there any 


one in the circle too dull to understand the mes- 
. 79 


80 The Lord We Love 


sage and the rebuke? Has not the Master 
shown his incomparable greatness by his will- 
-ingness to render that lowly service which none 
of them had offered to undertake? Never be- 
fore has the form of the Master seemed so ma- 
jestic as when he bows down to wash his dis- 
ciples’ feet. Each one of the group feels that 
his boasted greatness has been dwarfed into 
pitiful insignificance by the act of his Lord. 
He realises that there cannot be gradations and 
differences among the infinitely small. 

This lesson the followers of Christ, through 
all the ages, have needed to be taught again 
and again; and to-day, possibly as never before, 
they are showing that they believe nothing to 
be so royal, nothing so kingly, nothing so ma- 
jestic, as lowly service for those who are in 
need. 


The modes of service are varied. It can be 
rendered in many different spheres. It may be 
in the form of providing physical relief. Jesus 
bathed the feet of his followers because in that 
oriental land such an act was regarded as abso- 
lutely necessary to the comfort of those men 
who had met for that evening meal. 


Washing the Disciples’ Feet 81 


Weare living in a world of hunger and pain 
and sickness, of men and women and helpless 
children who are suffering from the ravages of 
disease, of famine, of flood and of war; what- 
ever may be done in the home, or in some dis- 
tant land to lift from any one the burden of 
distress will be an act well-pleasing to the 
Master if done in his spirit and for his sake. 


Yet Jesus did more than this for his disciples. 
When he stooped to wash his disciples’ feet he 
really cleansed their hearts. As he resumed 
his seat in the astonished circle, all their jeal- 
ousy and anger and pride had disappeared, they 
could think of nothing but the beauty and the 
loveliness of their Lord. 

So we find about us those who are living with 
low ideals of life, or who have fallen beneath 
the standards they accept; we are in contact 
with those whose hearts are bitter with envy, 
or disappointment, or hatred, and it is possible 
for us, by some act of kindness, by some min- 
istry of love, to lift to a higher plane those who 
have fallen, to make others ashamed of their 
weakness or forgetful of their wrath. 

However, there is even a higher form of 


82 The Lord We Love 


service; it is that which our Lord symbolised 
when he washed his disciples’ feet. It is that 
cleansing from the guilt and power of sin which 
he was to make possible by his atoning death. 
That act in the upper room was but a picture 
of the voluntary humiliation whereby he had 
laid aside his “‘existence-form as God,” had as- 
sumed the garment of human flesh, had taken 
the place of a servant, and was about to submit 
to the cruel death of the cross, and all because 
he wished to wash from the souls of men the 
stains and defilement of sin. | 

This was the meaning of that notable dia- 
logue between Jesus and Peter which inter- 
rupted the service the Master was rendering. 
Peter is insisting, “Thou shalt never wash my ~ 
feet,’ and Jesus makes reply, “If I wash thee 
not thou hast no part with me,” and no one is 
a real follower of Christ who is content to allow 
in his life the uncleanness and impurity of 
moral evil. 

However, one who has known the redeeming . 
power of Christ is in need of daily cleansing 
from daily defilement; for when Peter turns 
impulsively to the other extreme and cries, “not 
my feet only, but also my hands and my head,” 


Washing the Disciples’ Feet 83 


Jesus replies, “He that is bathed needeth not 
save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.” 

That others may know this cleansing power 
we must bring them into vital fellowship with 
Christ. This is the highest service we can 
render to any human soul. 


Whatever its mode or sphere, service can 
be rendered cheerfully and well only when one 
is animated by the supreme motive of love. It 
is an illuminating phrase with which John 
begins this story, “Having loved his own that 
were in the world, he loved them unto the end.” 
Love unfailing, love unfaltering, love unforget- 
ting, this is the explanation of the scene, and 
this too is the explanation of all true service. 
It is found in love to our fellowmen, and in 
love to Christ the Saviour of men. 


“Wherever in the world I am, 
In whatsoe’er estate, 
I have a fellowship with hearts 
To keep and cultivate, 
And a work of lowly love to do 
For the Lord on whom I watt.” 





IX: The Prayer of Our Lord 


“These things spake Jesus; and lifting up his 
eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour is 
come, glorify thy Son, that the Son may glo- 
rify thee: even as thou gavest him authority 
over all flesh, that to all whom thou hast given 
him, he should give eternal life. And this is 
life eternal, that they should know thee the 
only true God, and him whom thou didst send, 
even Jesus Christ” (John 17:1-3). | 


~ 


IX: The Prayer of Our Lord 


“There is no voice which has ever been 
heard, either in heaven or in earth, more 
exalted, more holy, more fruitful, more sub- 
lime, than this prayer offered up by the Son 
of God himself.” Such are the words of 
Melancthon; and such has been the verdict of 
the Christian centuries in reference to the sev- 
enteenth chapter of John. It is commonly re- 
garded as “the most precious fragment of the 
past.” Here we enter the holy of holies of the 
New Testament, for here we are given the most 
profound revelation of the very heart of our 
Lord. 

This is, in truth, “The Lord’s Prayer.” We 
properly apply this name to the formula taught 
by Jesus to his disciples, and beginning: “Our 
Father who art in heaven”; but speaking more 
strictly, this is his prayer; he could not have 
used the petitions he taught his disciples, in- 
cluding as they do a request for forgiveness; 
and none of his disciples could have uttered 


these words. 
87 


88 The Lord We Love 


If we wish convincing proof of the deity of 
Christ, it may be found in the majestic para- 
graphs of this prayer, in the sublime self-con- 
sciousness of the speaker, in his claim of uni- 
versal dominion in his reference to a previous 
existence in living unity with the eternal God. 

If on the other hand, we are not concerned 
with witness to the person of Christ but wish 
an answer to another question with which John 
is continually concerned, namely, what is the 
life in which faith in Christ will issue, we have 
here certain petitions offered, by the Son of 
God, for his followers; as they come from him, 
what are these but prophecies of blessing and 
promises to faithf 


Jesus prays, first of all, for himself; but the 
petition has no taint or intimation of selfish- 
ness. He prays to be glorified, in order that 
he may glorify his Father, and thus give “eter- 
nal life’ to his followers. ‘‘Father, the hour is 
come; glorify thy Son, that the Son may. 
glorify thee: even as thou gavest him authority 
over all flesh, that to all whom thou hast given 
him, he should give eternal life.”’ 

“The hour,” was the expected time of -his 


The Prayer of Our Lord 89 


death and resurrection. This prayer was ut- 
tered on the night of his agony only a few 
hours before his Passion. By his request to be 
glorified, Jesus referred to his crucifixion, his 
triumph over the grave, his ascension, and su- 
premely his outpouring of the Holy Spirit. To 
“glorify” one is to make one known; Jesus de- 
sires to be made known in his true character, 
as the divine Son of God, as the Messiah, as 
the Saviour of the world. This manifestation 
all centred in ‘‘the hour” which had come, but 
which would include Pentecost and all that the 
gift of the Holy Spirit suggests. That gift 
constituted or secured the answer to this 
prayer. By “the glory” of the Son, the glory 
of the Father was secured. God was never so 
fully revealed in all his justice and love and 
holiness and grace, as by “the hour” with which 
we are now concerned. 

Then, too, by this revelation, life was se- 
cured for the followers of Christ; for ‘“‘this is 
life eternal, that they should know thee the only 
true God, and him whom thou didst send, even 
Jesus Christ.” To “know,” according to John’s 
Gospel, is not merely an act of the mind; in 
that sense, demons know God; but it denotes 


90 The Lord We Loven 


love, obedience, faith, the response of the en- 
tire being. Thus to know God as revealed in 
his Son is to have eternal life. This life is, 
therefore, not only a future, but a present ex- 
perience; it denotes endless existence but also a 
heavenly blessedness. : 

This first petition Jesus based upon the fact 
that his earthly task was complete: “I have 
accomplished the work which thou hast given 
me to do.’ Already the supreme sacrifice 
seemed to him to have been made. His work 
was finished; and he could therefore pray; 
“And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine 
own self with the Ae which I had with thee 
before the world was.’ | 

How few men feel, under ine shadow of 
death, that life has been complete, and its work 
finished! What a pathetic series of beginnings 
and failures and imperfect endeavours it does 
seem to be. Yet, if one seeks to do the will of 
God, the symbol of life need not be a broken 
column. Much may seem incomplete: only 
three years of ministry, only a few sick healed, 
only a few sermons preached, only eleven dis-— 
ciples secured, no book written, no organisa- 
tion formed; but his work is finished; he néed 


The Prayer of Our Lord 91 


not linger longer here; the cross remains, then 
glory. 


Jesus prays next for his immediate disciples, 
for “‘the twelve” who had been with him; but 
he first describes them in phrases which have a 
meaning and a message for all who call them- 
selves his followers: ‘““The men whom thou gay- 
est me out of the world,” “they have kept thy 
word”; “the words which thou gavest me... 
they received’; “they believed that thou didst 
send me.” 

For these men Jesus prays: “I pray not for 
the world, but for those whom thou hast given 
me.’’ He does not mean that he never prayed 
for the world, or that we should not so pray; 
but on this supreme occasion he wishes to ask 
certain things for his followers. 

The petitions are two in number. First he 
prays that they may be kept from evil. 
During the earthly ministry of Jesus he has 
guarded his disciples, but now he is leaving 
them. The world will hate them. He there- 
fore commits them to the care of his Father. 
He does not ask that they shall be taken out of 
the world as he himself is leaving the world. 


92 The Lord We Love 


He does not ask that they shall be kept from 
sorrow and pain and temptation, but from 
gloom and discouragement and sin. “I pray 
not that thou shouldest take them from the 
world, but that thou shouldest keep them from 
the evil one.” . 

Their protection was to be effected by the 
agency of his Spirit, but also by the instrument 
of the truth concerning his Father. “While I 
was with them, I kept them in thy name,” that 
is by means of what God was known to be, by 
the revelation which Jesus had given of the 
Father; and by the same means they will be 
kept after his departure: “Holy Father, keep 
them in thy name which thou hast given me.” 

Secondly, Jesus prays that his disciples may 
be sanctified. This does not here refer specifi- 
cally to holiness, or separation from sin. That 
was the burden of the first petition. The re- 
quest is rather, that they may be set apart for 
service, and more specifically for the service of 
witnessing’ to the truth. It is really a prayer 
for the consecration of his chosen messengers 
to their appointed mission. ‘“Sanctify them in 
the truth: thy word is truth.” The revelation 
of the Father which Jesus had given, “the 


The Prayer of Our Lord 93. 


truth” he had revealed, was to be not only the 
instrument of their consecration but the sphere 
of their service. Therefore Jesus adds, “As 
thou didst send me into the world, even so sent 
I them into the world,” that is, to be his mes- 
sengers, to testify to “the truth.” 


Having prayed for himself and his disciples, 
Jesus now prays for all believers, “that they 
may all be one,” and that at last they may be 
with him in heavenly “glory.” The first peti- 
tion, for the oneness of believers, refers to 
something quite different and far more won- 
derful than the “church unity,” the “organic 
union” the “united Christendom,” to which it 
is commonly supposed to refer. It contem- 
plates a spiritual unity, which must be given 
visible expression, but which, in its essence, 
consists of a union with Christ, and through 
him with God. Jesus prayed “that they also 
may bein us.” The prayer was given its initial 
answer on the Day of Pentecost when, by the 
Holy Spirit, believers were “all baptized into 
one body.” So Paul does not pray for “church 
unity,” but insists that it already exists. Even 
now, “there is one body,’’ composed of all who 


04 The Lord We Love 


are united with Christ, as there is “one Spirit, 
. one hope . . . one Lord, one faith, one 
baptism, one God and Father of all.” _ 

There does remain, however, a further ful- 
filment of this petition, and for it we are to 
work and to pray. This spiritual unity must 
be made manifest, and so manifest as to be an 
irresistible argument for the divine mission of 
Christ: “that the world may know that thou 
didst send me.” What this ultimate expression 
may be, in this present age of imperfect knowl- 
edge, none is wise enough to predict. There 
is little hope, perhaps no reasonable desire, for 
unity of organisation, for uniformity of wor- 
ship, for unanimity of creed; certainly not if 
any of these must be secured by compulsion, or 
by the sacrifice of conviction. There is, how- 
ever, much that can be done by every believer: 
first, accept and act upon the reality of our 
vital union as members of the one body of 
Christ, whatever our particular ‘church’ or 
“society’’ may be; second, remember that Chris- 
tian unity can be advanced only by an increas- 
ing knowledge of Christ and of the truth which 
he reveals; third, manifest the love, long-suffer- 
ing, gentleness, meekness, and patience which 


The Prayer of Our Lord 95 


are the fruit of the Spirit, and look to the guid- 
ance of that Spirit to lead us toward that mani- 
festation of unity for which a lost world still 
waits. 

A time is surely coming when this manifesta- 
tion will be complete. “When Christ, who is 
our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also 
with him be manifested in glory.” It is with 
a petition for this future “glory” of the Church 
that the prayer of Jesus reaches its climax. 
“Father, I desire that they also whom thou 
hast given me be with me where I am, that 
they may behold my glory, which thou hast 
given me.” Of course believers enjoy a present 
glory; “the glory which thou hast given me I 
have given unto them,” the glory of being chil- 
dren of God and possessors of eternal life; but 
there is greater blessedness in store for them, 
an actual vision of Christ, a share in the in- 
effable glory granted to the Son by the love of 
the Father. For such glory Jesus pleads on the 
ground of the faith of his followers, and of his 
continuing revelation to them, and of his own 
abiding presence with them. 

It is the last phrase, “I in them,” which is the 
assurance and condition of the answer to this 


96 The Lord We Love 


high-priestly prayer of intercession. The in- 
dwelling Christ, by his Spirit, is the power and 
agent by whom his followers are being kept 
from sin, sanctified in service, given unity of 
life, made ready for glory. 


X: The Friends of Jesus 


“This is my commandment, that ye love one 
another, even as I have loved you. Greater 
love hath no man than this, that a man lay 
down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, 
if ye do the things which I command you. 
No longer do I call you servants ; for the serv- 
ant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I 
have called you friends; for all things that I 
heard from my Father I have made known 
unto you” (John 15:12-15). | 


X: The Friends of Jesus 


That was a notable and illuminating word 
which the Master spoke on that memorable oc- 
casion in the upper room when addressing the 
men he most dearly loved, “Ye are my friends, 
if ye do whatsoever I command you.” 

It revealed to them and it also intimates to 
us something of the nature and value of human 
friendships, and, further still, what it is for us 
to have Jesus as our Friend. 

For our Saviour to have suggested that the 
relation which his followers sustain to him can 
be designated as “friendship” throws a new 
halo of beauty and of glory about AL the real 
friendships of earth. 

Something of the value of friendship has 
been appreciated by men and women of all the 
ages. “I can only urge you,’ wrote Cicero, 
“to prefer friendship to all human _ posses- 
sions.” We are told of the king who gave to 
a courtier a cup of gold, but to another a kiss. 


The one who received the first was envied by 
99 


100 The Lord We Love 


his fellows until they saw the king bestow upon 
the other courtier that which was so much 
more precious because it was a sign of inti- 
macy and of love. 

It is said that Mrs. Browning asked Charles 
Kingsley what was the secret of his life, “Tell 
me that I may make mine beautiful, too.” He 
replied, “I had a friend.’’ Probably all of us 
have learned something of the stimulating and 
ennobling influences of true friendship. : 

Phillips Brooks remarked, “There is yet no 
culture, no method of progress, known to man 
that is so rich and complete as that which is 
ministered by a truly great friendship.” 

Thomas a Kempis wrote, “Without a friend 
thou canst not well live; and if Jesus be not 
above all friends to thee, thou shalt be indeed 
sad and desolate.” 

What then is the essence and nature of this 
relationship to Christ which he describes under 
this beautiful and sacred term? 


Friendship has been defined as consisting in 
mutual admiration based upon sympathy. Of 
course there must be sympathy; persons must 
have something in common if they are to be 


~The Friends of Jesus 101 


friends. They may find themselves drawn to- 
gether on the lowest possible levels, it might 
be even a fellowship in sin such as drew to- 
gether the Jew of Malta and his slave. It is 
more commonly the sharing of some form of 
recreation or of some worthy endeavour which 
constitutes the bond of sympathy ; and when on 
this basis admiration arises, it forms a union 
which is rightly designated as friendship. 

This must have been in part the meaning of 
Jesus when he decelared that his disciples would 
be his friends if they obeyed his commands. 
They had learned to love him because he real- 
ised their ideal of all that was noblest and best. 
It was their admiration for him that drew them 
close to-him and formed the basis of their 
friendship. He therefore assured them, and 
he assures us, that if we share his high pur- 
poses, if we seek to do his will, then his friend- 
ship for us and ours for him will become to us 
more vital and more real. We are the friends 
of Christ when we obey him; and when we 
obey, his friendship to us is most precious. 


Friendship has further been described as 
trust responding to self-revelation. This was 


102 The Lord We Love 


probably what Christ meant when he added, 
“No longer do I call you servants; for the 
servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but 
I have called you friends; for all things that I 
heard from my Father I have made known 
unto you.” Jesus showed himself to be a friend 
by the disclosures of his own thought and feel- 
ing, and especially of his knowledge of the 
Father; and the disciples showed themselves 
to be friends when they received as true and 
accepted as their own all that Jesus revealed 
to them. Where there is friendship there must 
be such confidence and such trust. One has re- 
marked that when two friends separate they 
should lock up the secrets of their hearts and 
exchange the keys. What an example of trust 
was that which Jesus finally gave to John, when © 
as he hung upon the cross he committed his 
own dear mother into the care and keeping of 
the disciple whom he loved. On the other hand, 
how truly John showed his friendship as he 
wrote his Gospel and expressed his absolute 
confidence in Christ as his Saviour and his 
God. 

We are friends of Jesus when we believe 
what he has revealed himself to be and trust 


The Friends of Jesus 103 


ourselves wholly to him. Can we trust him 
with our happiness? Can we really believe 
that life will be more full of sunlight and glad- 
_ ness when we do his will than when we follow 
the bidding of any recreant desire or passion? 

Can we trust him with the past, believing 
that over it we have no control and that he is 
able to weave into some beautiful pattern even 
our blunders, our failures and our faults? Can 
we intrust to him all the future, with its mys- 
teries, its hopes, and its fears? If so, we are 
true friends of Jesus. 


Friendship in its very essence, however, has 
been regarded as being affection responding to 
self-sacrifice. Friendship attains its height and 
its glory in love, and true love is never selfish; 
it never seeks to get, but always to give. As 
long as any gain or self-satisfaction is the mo- 
tive for action, love is imperfect. When, how- 
ever, love is begotten by a consciousness of 
being loved, when true affection is called forth 
by tokens of self-sacrifice and devotion, then it 
attains its true height and the resultant bond 
is worthy of the name “friendship.” 

This is beautifully illustrated in the case of 


104 The Lord We Love 


David and Jonathan; in the case of Ruth and 
Naomi; but supremely in the picture of Jesus 
and his disciples. | 

We hear him saying: “Greater love hath no 
man than this, that a man lay down his life 
for his friends. Ye are my friends.” It is as 
we realise all that Christ has done for us that 
our hearts go out in devotion to him. We are 
truly his friends when we obey him and trust 
him and love him. 


“Oh, dearly, dearly has he loved, 
And we must love him too, 
And trust in his redeeming blood, 
And try his works to do.” 


XI: Judas and Peter 


“Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he 
saw that he was condemned, repented himself, 
and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to 
the chief priests and elders, saying, I have 
sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood. But 
they said, What is that to us? see thou to it. 
And he cast down the pieces of silver into 
the sanctuary, and departed; and he went away — 
and hanged himself’ (Matthew 27:3-5). 


“And the Lord turned, and looked upon 
Peter. Peter remembered the word of the 
Lord, how that he said unto him, Before the 
cock crow this day thou shalt deny me thrice. 
And he went out, and wept bitterly’ (Luke 
22: 61-62). 


XI: Judas and Peter 


There is an obvious difference between the 
experience of the man who, after moving stead- 
ily down a mountain side, leaps over a precipice 
to voluntary death, and the man who, in his 
ascent, slips at a sudden turn of the trail, falls, 
rises in pain, but then presses on heroically to 
the mountain crest. 

Such a contrast may illustrate, at least 
crudely, the difference between the sin of Judas 
and the sin of Simon Peter. One was the last 
desperate act in a life which had been steadily 
descending from bad to worse, the other was 
the temporary failure in a character which was 
rising to greater heights of spiritual experience 
and of devoted service. 

However, there are points of comparison be- 
tween the two; both men belonged to the circle 
of the nearest friends of Jesus, both had been 
chosen to be his apostles, both had been warned 
of their peril, both wounded the Master’s heart, 


both brought reproach upon his name; and, 
107 


108 The ‘Lord Weslo 


what is of more importance to us, both have 
their parallels among the professed followers 
of Christ to-day. 

As to the character of Judas and the exact 
nature of his crime, there exist differences of 
opinion. Some regard him as a true patriot 
and as a devoted friend of Jesus, who was per- 
suaded that his Master was the true Messiah, 
who thought that by placing him in the hands 
of his enemies he would precipitate a needed 
crisis, compel Jesus to exert his divine power, 
to throw off the yoke of Rome and give politi- 
cal freedom to the Jews; when the kind plan of 
Judas miscarried, he died in an agony of grief. 
Others go to an opposite extreme and picture 
Judas as an incarnate fiend, unnatural, in- 
human, literally a devil, or one so truly demon- 
possessed that he had little in common with 
other men. The statements of the Gospels, 
relative to Judas, seem to give us a view be- 
tween these two extremes, and to paint for us a 
character so human, so natural, so familiar, 
that it supplies a continual and practical but 
solemn warning for all men, even for professed 
Christians. 

Judas is simply an example of the man who 


Judas and Peter 109 


cherishes a secret sin while openly following 
Christ. He may have regarded Jesus as a 
worker of miracles who was to establish a tem- 
poral kingdom, at first he even may have ad- 
mired Jesus, but he never trusted in him, he had 
no real faith; his love was for gold, avarice 
was his lord. He probably possessed qualities 
which would have made him of great service to 
the Master. When he was appointed treasurer 
for the little company of disciples, he might 
have surrendered his sin and have developed 
into a saint, but he retained his sin, he reacted 
against the purifying influences of the Master, 
he rebelled against his teachings, until he began 
to cherish hatred for his cause, and at last 
plotted against his life. The more plain the 
teaching of Christ, the more loving his en- 
treaties, the more arresting his rebukes, the 
more serious his warnings, only the more rap- 
idly does evil develop in the heart of Judas. 
Avarice degenerates into dishonesty, dishonesty 
into malice, and malice into treachery. He fol- 
lows Christ, at first, in hope of gain, then he 
steals from the treasury, then he betrays his 
Lord for thirty pieces of silver. The last act 
is not sudden, it is not surprising; he has long 


110 The Lord We Love 


been gravitating toward it; and when he real- 
ises the enormity of his crime, there is no real 
repentance, only bitter remorse which drives 
him to end his life by suicide “that he might 
go to his own place.” 

Such is the peril of every man who clings 
to his sin in the presence of Christ. It may 
be the sin of avarice, or of pride, or of impure 
desire, or of dishonesty, or of envy; but if such 
evil is cherished in spite of the light and truth 
and knowledge which the Master gives, the © 
decay of virtue is only the more rapid, until 
repentance becomes impossible and only re- 
morse and death remain. | | 

The story of the sin of Peter is more simple, 
and its sequel less tragic. He was a true be- 
liever in Jesus, he trusted himself to his Master 
as to the true Messiah, “‘the Christ, the Son of 
God.” His faith never failed, for his Master 
had prayed that it should not. His courage 
failed, however, and in a moment of weakness 
he denied his Lord; but he at once repented of 
his sin, as he “went out, and wept bitterly,” 
and he found the peace of pardon and the joy 
of renewed service. 

His failure is explained on the ground of his 


Judas and Peter 111 


self-confidence and his cowardice. There is no 
lack of love for the Master, but when he is 
alone and suddenly confronted with temptation 
he is a victim of sudden fear, and he denies his 
Lord, first by a falsehood, then in anger, and 
finally with curses and oaths. 

In some of these exact ways professed fol- 
lowers of Christ, who really love him, actually 
deny him. Deception and anger and careless 
reference to sacred things are among the most 
common forms of denying the Lord. The 
secret of these and similar expressions of dis- 
loyalty is found in moral cowardice; courage 
fails, in some unexpected situation, and almost 
before one realises what is being done, the de- 
ceitful word has been spoken, the angry reply 
has been made, the unholy thought has been 
expressed. 

Then comes some remembrance of the loving 
Master whose heart has been pained by our 
weakness. There results the sorrow of true 
repentance, and then a meeting alone with the 
risen Lord, the new confession of love, and the 
passionate devotion to his cause. No one who 
has truly trusted in Christ will betray him, but 
one who loves him may know the anguish of 


112 The Lord We Love 


failure and the chastened joy of forgiveness 
and of fellowship restored. 


“In the hour of trial, 
Jesus, plead for me; 
Lest by base denial 
I depart from Thee: 
When Thou seest me waver, 
With a look recall, 
Nor for fear of favor 
Suffer me to fall.” 


XII: At the Cross 


“Surely he hath borne our griefs and car- 
ried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him 
stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he 
was wounded for our transgressions, he was 
bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of 
our peace was upon him; and with his stripes 
we are healed. All we like sheep have gone 
astray: we have turned every one to his own 
way; and Jehovah hath laid on him the in- 
iquity of us all” (Isaiah 53: 4-6). 


XII: At the Cross 


After the night in which a city had been 
devastated by fire and storm, a cathedral spire 
was seen standing unscathed amid the ruins and 
surmounted by its cross of gold. Then Sir 
John Bowring composed his famous hymn: 


“In the cross of Christ I glory, 
Towering o'er the wrecks of time; 
All the light of sacred story 
Gathers round its head sublime.” 


It is certainly true that the cross of Christ 
appears to-day towering in triumph above 
fallen systems of false belief, above the shat- 
tered ambitions of selfishness, above the rav- 
ages of relentless years, a symbol of love, of 
faith and of hope; it is also true that about the 
cross centre those essential realities by which 
the followers of Christ are strengthened, in- 
spired and transformed. 


Therefore it is helpful for us at times to turn 
115 


116 The Lord We Love 


back in memory to the very scenes of Calvary 
itself, to picture to ourselves the various figures 
which there appear, and to recall the serious 
messages which the review suggests. 


First of all, and most vividly of all, we be- 
hold him who, in nameless agony, is suffering 
there for us, “wounded for our transgressions 
. . . bruised for our iniquities,” bearing “our 
sins in his body’; and as we realise anew his — 
redeeming love our eyes dim with tears, our 
hearts throb with new devotion, and we share 
more deeply the sentiment of another immortal 
hymn, possibly the most favoured and the most 
moving of all our sacred songs. 


“When I survey the wondrous cross 
On which the Prince of glory died, 
My richest gain I count but loss, 
And pour contempt on all my pride. 


“Were the whole realm of nature mine, 
That were a present far too small; 
Love so amazing, so divine, 
Demands my soul, my life, my all.” 


The soldiers are there, poor, brutal, ignorant 
instruments of Rome; and by them we are re- 


At the Cross LUZ» 


minded of the satanic cruelties of which men 
still are capable, even in the presence of Christ, 
even in the name of Christ, even toward Christ 
and his followers; but then, too, we remember 
that there should be no place in our hearts for 
malice or bitter hatred toward those who really 
do not understand the nature of their crimes, 
for we hear the Master pray: “Father, forgive 
them; for they know not what they do.” 


The chief priests are there, mocking him; 
men who have sinned against light, men upon 
whom rests the responsibility for this cruelty 
and crime, and we hear them say, “He saved 
others; himself he cannot save.” They speak 
more truly than they think: “He saved others,” 
but only because he would not save himself; 
and he can save those who believe and trust 
him, others he cannot save. 


Then, there are those who are passing by 
and who are crying out in derision, “Thou that 
destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three 
days, save thyself, and come down from the 
cross.” Little do they dream that in three days 
the temple of his body will be rebuilt and he 


118 The Lord We Love 


will triumph over death. Should these un- 
doubted facts of resurrection and the empty 
tomb have no meaning to careless sceptics to- 
day? “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass 
by?” | 


Two robbers are there, crucified with him, 
yet ready to unite in the mockery. One of 
them, in a single hour, passes through the 
whole experience of repentance and faith and 
pardon and receives the blessed word of as- 
surance: “To-day shalt thou be with me in 
Paradise.” He is saved in his last hour, so 
none of us need despair; yet he alone of the 
multitudes is saved thus, so none of us should 
presume. How much clearer is our vision of 
Christ! How much greater has been our op- 
portunity of knowing the Saviour! Is there 
one whose case is more desperate, is there one 
whose need is so great? In the hour of death 
it is not too late to be saved, but is it safe to 
delay our decision? Do we know when that 
hour is to be, and shall we not now call upon 
him for mercy, that the day of death may be 
likewise the day of conscious blessedness in 
the presence of our Lord? 


AG the Cross 119 


Then too, near the cross, we see that pathetic 
group whose souls are wrung with anguish, 
John “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” Mary 
the mother of Jesus, and the other women who 
have followed Jesus from Galilee. John seems 
to have guided the little party to the place of 
death, that they may catch one last glimpse of 
their Lord, that they may comfort him by their 
presence or possibly receive from him some 
word of farewell; and now the devotion of 
John is rewarded as the Master, more mindful 
of others than of his own sufferings, commits 
his mother to the care of his trusted friend. 
Together they turn from the cross, to go at 
once to the home of John, while the women 
who are with them follow for a time and then 
turn to behold from afar the scene of tragedy 
and terror. Probably every one, who like 
John approaches the cross of Christ with a 
heart of burning sympathy, goes away from 
the cross with some commission for new service 
and to render some tender ministry for those 
whom Jesus loves. 


Now deep darkness settles not only upon the 
scene of suffering but upon the soul of the 


} 


120 The Lord We Love 


Saviour, and he who was “made to be sin on 
our behalf’? seems to experience the hiding of 
his Father’s face; but victory is near, and while 
the earth quakes and rocks are rent and graves 
are opened, and the veil of the Temple is torn 
asunder, he utters his cry of triumph, he dis- 
misses his spirit, and the work of redemption 
is “finished.” No wonder that the centurion, 
who saw the victorious death, cried, “Truly this 
man was the Son of God”; and surely every © 
one who stands thoughtfully at the cross and 
interprets its meaning in the light of Scripture, | 
in the light of the sufferer’s claims, and in the 
light of history, must see in him who suffered 
there not only the “Strong Son of God” but 
also “immortal Love,” the mighty Servant, who 
came “to minister, and to give his life a ransom 
for many,” a personal Saviour, a divine Master 


and Lord. 


XIII: The Day He Arose 


oo 


“For I delivered unto you first of all that 
which also I received: that Christ died for our 
sins according to the scriptures; and that he 
was buried; and that he hath been raised on 
the third day according to the scriptures” 
(I Corinthians 15: 3-4). 


“And if Christ hath not been raised, then is 
our preaching vain, your faith also is vain” 
(CZ. Corinthians 15:14). 


“But now hath Christ been raised from the 
dead, the firstfruits of them that are asleep. 
For since by man came death, by man came 
also the resurrection of the dead. For as in 
Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be 
made alive. But each in his own order: Christ 
the firstfruits; then they that are Christ’s, at 
his coming” (I Corinthians 15: 20-23). 


XIII: The Day He Arose 


A modern artist, Eugene Bernand, has 
painted for us the now famous picture of the 
disciples Peter and John running to the 
sepulchre on the morning of the resurrection. 
In the faces of the disciples he portrays the con- 
tending emotions of sorrow and joy, of anguish 
and relief, of despair and hope; but the bend- 
ing forms and fixed eager gaze turn our 
thoughts forward to the tomb and instinctively 
we ask ourselves, What did they find, and what 
were the experiences of these men and of their 
fellow disciples that day on which their Lord 
rose from the dead? 

With the answer we are familiar, but it may 
be well for us to review the main features of 
the story because their experiences may be ours, 
and the glad messages of that day some of us 
now may need. 


First of all when they reached the tomb they 


found that the guard had gone. Those coarse, 
123 


124 The Lord We Love 


brutal, careless soldiers had attested and then 
had denied the resurrection of Christ. While 
they were watching at the sealed sepulchre they 
had been startled by an earthquake, they had 
seen an angel descend and roll away the stone; 
they had looked in wonder upon an empty tomb; 
they had hastened to report the marvel to the 
rulers and had been bribed by them to say, “His 
disciples came by night and stole him away 
while we slept.” 7 

For us too the guards are gone. There is 
nothing to-day to keep us from the empty tomb. 
‘There is no reason for doubting its witness’ to 
the resurrection of our Lord. To be sure there 
are some faint echoes of the falsehood circu- 
lated by the guard. Some men may really be- 
lieve that terrified disciples, who had fled for 
their lives, boldly returned and dragged the 
body of Jesus from the tomb which was sealed 
by a stone and guarded by armed men. Some 
profess to believe that Jesus did not die, but 
that he only swooned upon the cross, and creep- 
ing from the tomb made his disciples believe 
he had risen from the dead. Some maintain 
that the apostles forged a lie, and others that 
these phlegmatic fishermen, who had no hope 


The Day He Arose 125 


of seeing their Master again, were victims of 
hallucination and of dreams. | 

All these explanations of the empty tomb are 
like that of the guard. Theirs was not origi- 
nal, they were taught it by others. Theirs was 
absurd, for if at the time they were “asleep,” 
how could they know who came to the grave 
and what was done? Such are all other ex- 
planations of the empty tomb. There is only 
one we can accept. It was the empty tomb of a 
risen Lord. For us the guard has gone. 


Yet the angels also are gone. One had been 
seen by the soldiers and two were seen by Mary 
and her friends, but none by Peter and John. 
However, the angels sent a message to all the 
disciples, ““He is risen from the dead; and lo, 
he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye 
see him.” 

To us no angels now appear, but God does 
send messengers who bring to us glad tidings 
of resurrection and of life. Some hear him 
speaking in the burst of dawn, some in the 
breath of spring, some in the opening of a 
flower, some in a phrase from the Gospel, some 
in the fragment of a hymn. By tender hearts, 


126 The Lord We Love 


voices of hope and cheer are heard even in the 
shadow of the tomb. | 


The angels are gone, but there are in that 
sepulchre evidences enough to convince the be- 
loved disciple that his Lord has risen indeed. 
There are “the linen cloths lying, and the 
napkin, that was upon his head, not lying with 
the linen cloths, but rolled up in a place by 
itself.”” These facts are but trifles, yet in an 
empty tomb they are witness enough. “He saw 
and believed.” 

A heart full of love for Christ requires but 
little proof to find in him a living Lord. The 
evidence which brought rapturous belief to 
John left Peter in hopelessness and gloom. 
The apostle of love was the first person to be- 
lieve in a risen Christ, and he it was who after- 
wards recorded that beatitude which fell from 
the lips of his living Lord, a beatitude the 
blessedness of which he was the first to know 
and in which we all now share, “Blessed are 
they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” 


The first, however, to see the risen Lord 
was Mary of Magdala, Mary the mourner; and 


The Day He Arose 127 


surely the mourner most needs the message of 
an Easter day. She was weeping by the grave 
of her buried hopes, distressed because she 
could not find the body of her Lord. Suddenly 
she turned and was amazed to see standing be- 
fore her the living glorious form of the risen. 
Christ. As she falls at his feet she hears the 
words which are still bringing divine comfort 
to bereft and broken hearts, ‘“Touch me not, 
for I am not yet ascended unto the Father: but 
go to my brethren, and say to them, I ascend 
unto my Father and your Father, and my God 
and your God.” 

Do we wonder where the loved one has gone? 
The risen Saviour bids us look not downward 
toward the grave, but upward into the glory. 
Do we long for reunion? Then instead of the 
“never more” of unbelief comes the “not yet’ 
of faith, Are we puzzled by the dark provi- 
dences of God? Then think of him as the 
“Father” who deals with us in perfect love. Is 
the loneliness too bitter to bear? ‘Then believe 
that our Lord has ‘‘ascended,” which means for 
us that he is an abiding Presence, a divine Com- 
forter, an unseen, unfailing Friend. 

The first disciple to see the Master, on the 


128 The Lord We Love 


day he arose, was Simon Peter, and no one 
more needs a vision of the living Christ than 
the man who has denied his Lord. Where 
Jesus found his penitent follower, whose heart 
was crushed with remorse, we do not know, 
nor are we told what words of confession and 
forgiveness were there exchanged; but of this 
we are sure, it is possible for every one who 
feels the shame and disgrace of disloyalty to 
Christ to meet with him alone to-day and to — 
receive from him pardon and peace. 


Now the shadows are lengthening and two 
disciples are seen walking in sadness through 
the deepening twilight toward Emmaus, their 
home. The risen Christ appears and walks 
with them; but they fail to recognise him even 
while he communes with them and explains the 
inspired predictions of his sufferings and of 
his glory. Only when their destination has 
been reached do they discover that they are in 
the actual presence of their living Lord; and 
then he vanishes out of their sight. 

Is not our experience the same? Do we not 
fail to recognise the divine companion who is 
with us always, ready to cheer and strengthen 


The Day He Arose 129 


us, to open to us the Scriptures, and to reveal 
himself to us in the breaking of bread? Yet 
there is this difference; when the journey of 
life is ended and we reach our home, “we shall 
see him as he is” and the vision will not vanish 
in darkness but will be the abiding glory of an 
endless day. 


“Who walks beside me in the gloom? 
Who shares the burden wearisome? 
Who all the dim way doth illume, 
And bids me look beyond the tomb, 
The larger life to live?” 


The last scene of all is in the upper room 
where the disciples have been accustomed to 
meet with their Lord. There with darkness 
and danger about them they are listening to the 
testimony brought by certain of their number 
that their Lord has been seen alive, risen from 
the dead; and suddenly the Master himself 
stands in their midst, he shows them his hands 
and his feet, he speaks to them the word of 
peace, he commissions them to be his witnesses 
and he imparts to them his Spirit. 

Such too have been the repeated experiences 


130 The Lord We Love 


of his followers through all the passing years. 
As they have gathered in his name and have 
spoken together of his resurrection glory, he 
has become to them a living Presence, he has 
brought peace to their troubled hearts, he has 
sent them out to testify for him, filled with 
his Spirit and rejoicing in his love. 


“Neither might the gates of death, 
Nor the tomb’s dark portal, 
Nor the watchers, nor the seal, 
Hold Thee as a mortal: 

“But to-day amidst the Twelve 
Thou didst stand, bestowing 
That Thy peace, which evermore 

Passeth human knowing.” 


XIV: The Ascension 


“So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken 
unto them, was received up into heaven, and 
sat down at the right hand of God” (Mark 
16:19). 


“And he led them out until they were over 
against Bethany: and he lifted up his hands, 
and blessed them. And it came to pass, while 
he blessed them, he parted from them, and 
was carried up into heaven” (Luke 24:50, 


51). ) 


“And when he had said these things, as they 
were looking, he was taken up; and a cloud 
received him out of their sight. And while 
they were looking steadfastly into heaven as 
he went, behold two men stood by them in 
white apparel; who also said, Ye men of Gali- - 
lee, why stand ye looking into heaven? This 
Jesus who was received up from you into 
heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye be- 
held him going into heaven” (Acts 1:9-11). 


XIV: The Ascension 


The earthly life of our Lord does not close 
with the story of an empty tomb but of opening 
skies, not of an appearing to his disciples but 
of his disappearing in a cloud as he is “received 
up into heaven.’ The ascension, therefore, is 
not to be regarded as a mere poetic fancy but 
as a sober fact, and as such it is twice recorded 
by the accurate historian Luke. 

It is an event quite distinct from the resur- 
rection which it followed after an interval of 
forty days. It brings us into the sphere of 
mystery, but it is a reality which was given a 
_ place of prominence in the preaching of the 
apostles, and has a meaning and a message for 
all who love our Lord. 


First of all, in his ascension Christ passed 
from the sphere of the seen and temporal into 
that of the unseen and eternal. Ever since his 
resurrection Jesus had been meeting frequently 
with his disciples, eating and drinking with 

133 


134 The Lord We Love 


them, teaching them and “speaking the things 
concerning the kingdom of God”; now he 
finally and formally withdraws from his fol- 
lowers: “A cloud received him out of their 
sight’; henceforth he will be an unseen Pres- 
ence; he will speak to them by his Spirit. 

“He was taken up’; but we are not to sup- 
pose that he passed through infinite spaces and 
is now at a vast distance in some sphere in- 
finitely remote. There is no “up” or “down” 
in the universe. To say that he ascended is a 
correct but merely conventional use of speech; 
it describes the withdrawal of our Lord from 
human sight and material conditions into the 
realm of the heavenly and the spiritual. 

The word must not intimate to us that he is 
faraway. Those who witnessed the event were 
the very men who henceforth regarded him as 
ever near and rejoiced in his divine fellowship. 
- In no degree have we begun to fathom the 
mysteries of the unseen world; but we must 
not suppose it to be far away. He is nearer 
than we dream. The truth of his ascension 
should not weaken but strengthen our con- 
sciousness of companionship with the Lord we 
love. 


The Ascension 135 


Then too this experience of Christ is closely 
related to the truth as to his glorious and 
visible return. Some day he will reappear. He 
will emerge from the sphere of the unseen, he 
will be manifest to human sight. The very 
narrative of his ascension lays chief stress upon 
the promise of his coming again, “And while 
they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he 
went, behold two men stood by them in white 
apparel; who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why 
stand ye looking into heaven? this Jesus, who 
was received up from you into heaven, shall so 
come in like manner as ye beheld him going into 
heaven.” The story of the ascension should 
quicken the hope of his return. 


It should further assure us that our future 
life is not that of disembodied spirits. How- 
ever marvellously changed, there was a con- 
tinuous identity in the body of the crucified 
risen ascended Christ. Whatever changes had 
occurred in that body as it left the tomb, it 
seems to have been “glorified,” not then, but 
now as he withdraws from the sight of men. 
Whatever “resurrection” may mean for us, 
however the living are to be “changed” when 


136 The Lord We Love 


the Lord returns, we are sure that our per- 
fected spirits are at last to be clothed with im- 
mortal bodies, and their type and pattern is 
found in the glorified body of the ascending 
Christ. 


Then again, at the time of his ascension, our 
Lord assumed universal power. Then he 
began to exercise “all authority . . . in heaven 
and on earth.” Henceforth he cannot be re- 
garded as a mere human teacher, a prophet, a 
martyr; he now returns to the glory he had 
with the Father “‘before the world was”; he 
again exists in the form of God. As the 
Apostles’ Creed affirms, “He ascended into 
heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God 
the Father Almighty.” As he declares in the 
Apocalypse, “I also overcame and sat down 
with my Father in his throne.” 

We are puzzled by his providences, we 
wonder at his long delays, but we believe “he 
is able to save to the uttermost them that draw 
near unto God through him,” and that in his 
loving care, yes, in his pierced hands, lie the 
destinies of all mankind. One who catches a 


The Ascension 1S% 


clear view of the ascension best of all under- 
stands the unique Person and the saving work 
of Christ. 


Last of all, it may be stated that the ascen- 
sion made possible the Pentecostal outpouring 
of the Holy Spirit. This was what John meant 
when he said “the Spirit was not yet given; be- 
cause Jesus was not yet glorified.” This too 
was the meaning of the Master’s word, “It is 
expedient for you that I go away; for if I go 
not away the Comforter will not come unto 
you.” 

Surely, the Spirit of God always had been 
present and regnant in the world, but only 
when the Person and work of Christ were at- 
tested by his return to glory, only then could 
his Spirit be manifested in promised Pente- 
costal power. If we are to know the guidance 
and comfort of his Spirit in daily life, if we 
are to be more and more completely “trans- 
formed” by his Spirit into his “image,” if we 
are to be fearless and effective in proclaiming 
the gospel of his grace, our faith must be fixed 
upon him as our risen, ascended, glorified Lord, 


138 The Lord We Love 


whom not having seen we love; on whom, 
though now we see him not, yet believing, we 
rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full 
of glory. 


THE END . 


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